Tillgänglig: Q3 2018

28 februari

I've got to admit that I have always loved oldschool cartoons. They had an undeniable charm that modern cartoons don't really have anymore and their production involved very particular and clever animation techniques. It wasn't until the computer age when the complicated animation process, which until that point had been done entirely by hand, started to simplify. I really appreciate the effort that went into making all those cartoons from the past look so amazingly beautiful.

I wanted to try it too. That's why Futurust is painted by hand. First off, I drew three designs for the main character. They looked similiar, but were clearly different robots. The one in the middle became the protagonist, named Rust. Why did I choose him? My daughter liked him the most and how could I refuse my little sweetheart?

However, I wanted to go deeper and connect myself more closely to those cartoons from the past that I wholeheartedly adored. That's why I decided animating the characters using one of the older techniques would be not only fun and entertaining, but also beneficial in giving the game a distinctive look. And because stop motion rules, at least in my mind, I wanted to make Rust's walking cycle by hand, and frame by frame.

Then reality kicked in. Painting animation frames with my coffee-watercolor artstyle for only one walk cycle took about seven days. A bit of quick math and I calculated that I'd finish making all the assets and animations somewhere around 2040! I found myself in a quite a deadlock, but, as always, Stanislaw Lem came to the rescue! I started wondering how I could quicken the pace of my work and I did not want to resign from the stop motion animation. In the end, I compromised and connected the past with the present by digitally animating my frame paintings.

Hey, if you love old school animation like I do, please add Futurust to your wishlist to stay up to date with all upcoming announcements.

8 februari

You already know my eLEMentary inspiration story for the rusty future of Futurust. But what about the gameplay? I'm sure some of you are scratching your heads thinking, "it's 2018 and he's doing a 2D point & click game? Y tho?"

The short answer? Because they’re fun.

The long answer: Because they're extremely fun and it's a shame that there aren’t many adventure games coming out lately. You know, I’ve always loved the fact that the experience I get from playing classic hits like The Pink Panther, Gobliiins or any of the Dizzy series, are very similar to what I felt when reading my favorite books. Those gaming adventures were so masterfully crafted, and the stories so in-depth and captivating, I just couldn't stop playing.

Yeah, that's it! I find playing good point & click adventure games parallel to reading a wonderfully written book. If you think about it, since they are both quite alike in terms of the way they effect their audience, they may have a similar function in one’s life. I love Lem's novels and I read them from time to time, even though I can already quote his stories from memory. Why? Because the older I get, the more I discover in those novels - from a different perspective. Adventure games are the same. You finish the story, put it down for a while and come back to it after you’ve lived your life a bit and your point of view shifts because of the new experiences and your different environment at the time.

I also love crafting fictional worlds that mirror real-life issues and helping to point them out to the audience. Games can serve as a social commentary in the same way books do, but in my humble opinion, they're more engaging and interactive due to their nature.

If you share my love, please remember to add Futurust to your wishlist!

Om detta spel

In a world, where no man has survived, there lived nice robots. They created a creaky civilization of their own and kept trying to imitate human beings… with rather lousy results. They lived in a metal city full of bizarre devices in peace and harmony, until one day, due to unknown reasons, one of them got reprogrammed to “Evil” mode. He started turning other robots off and chopping the round suburban trees down.

The story begins, when the main character Rust, a small, silly robot, and his wife are constructing their son. They get attacked by a reprogrammed robot named Bad. Due to their small size, they don’t stand a chance against him. Rust’s wife Eva is deprived of her power source, which causes her to turn off. Rust tries to protect her, but to no avail.

He gets torn into two pieces and lands far away from his home. Thankfully, he still has his power source. Rust will have to get himself together and go on a journey to save his loved one.